


The Old "I Know You're In There" Fight

by Duck_Life



Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Friendship/Love, Guns, Implied/Referenced Suicide attempt, M/M, New Mutants: Dead Souls - Freeform, POV First Person, Possession, Rescue Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 06:29:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17401778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: Boom-Boom, Rictor and Shatterstar break into the O*N*E to rescue the New Mutants. It doesn't go as planned.





	The Old "I Know You're In There" Fight

A small time bomb makes short work of the lock on the door. For an organization designed to protect people from “national emergencies,” it’s not actually that hard for a couple of mutant nobodies to break in.

Well, two mutant nobodies and whatever Shatterstar is. I used to call him a “whatever,” like Gonzo from the Muppets, until it pissed off Ric so much that he threatened to snap my shades in half.

We creep through the halls, me and Ric and Shatty. So far we haven’t actually bumped into any guards, which, on any other day, might mean we were walking into a trap. Fortunately, Domino’s got the majority of the O*N*E distracted right now. Something about vampires or alternate dimensions or… I don’t know, I wasn’t really listening. Point is, we’ve got a clear shot to bust the New Mutants outta this place, and we’re taking it.

Shatterstar pauses and holds up a hand, letting us know there are guards up ahead. I hold up a hand to let the boys know I’ve got this one, but Rictor shakes his head and points to himself. Just wants to show off in front of Shatterstar, I bet. Whatever.

Ric sends a vibe-quake through the floor and we hear the guards yell and fall over each other in the other room. “Let’s go,” Ric tells us, running around the corner and vaulting over the fallen guards. We tear around another corner and then I see them.

Guido, Dani and Rahne are staring at us with vacant yellow eyes through the window of their cell. “Holy shit,” I gasp, skidding to a stop. “Holy _shit_. Do you guys see…?”

“We see them,” Shatterstar says. He looks at me and I realize he and Ric are waiting for me to bust open the door. Right. I lob a time bomb at the door. Three, two, one… _boom_. As the dust clears, Dani and the others just stand there. It’s kind of creepy.

“Guys?” Ric says, waving a hand in front of Dani’s face. She blinks and her eyes focus on him the way the lens of a camera might.

Okay, scratch that “kinda.” It’s _seriously_ creepy.

“We’re springing you from this shithole, look alive,” I say, scooting around Ric and Shatterstar to try and pull Rahne out the door. “C’mon.” They’re like zombies, or robots that haven’t been turned on. It’s awful.

It’s even worse when I get a look at Illyana. Whatever the technarch junk did to her, plus whatever these O*N*E creeps have been doing, makes her look… empty. Usually she’s so full of spitfire and spite but now… it’s unnerving.

“We’ll figure out how to fix them later,” Rictor sighs, trying to gently guide Dani and Guido toward Shatterstar. “Right now we just gotta get them _away_.”

“Roger that,” I tell him, ushering Illyana and Rahne out of the chamber. It’s only then that it occurs to any of us that—

“Xi’an is missing,” Shatterstar points out.

“ _Mierda_ ,” Rictor curses, kicking the chamber door shut. “D’you think…? Hey Dani? You in there? Moonlock? Do you know where Xi’an is?”

If any of our Warlocked former teammates can hear him, they aren’t showing it. We lead them back down the hall, past the hallway where the guards from earlier are slumped unconscious. Dani, Guido, Rahne and Illyana move in unison, silent except for the quiet sound of their footsteps.

“I could try a teeny tiny little flashbomb?” I suggest. “To wake them up?”

“Jesus, Tab, why is your solution always to blow something up?”

“I dunno, Ric, why is your solution always to shake everything? Blowing shit up is what I _do_ . It’s who I _am_.”

“As entertaining as I usually find your bickering,” Shatterstar says, “someone’s coming.”

“Someone” turns out to be our worst nightmare— Xi’an Coy Manh.

Or, probably more accurately, Tran Coy Manh. In Xi’an Coy Manh’s body.

Just once I’d like to have a friend without a fucking ridiculously complex backstory. Rictor and I met while I was breaking him out of an anti-mutant hate group run by a bunch of androids. Shatterstar’s half-mutant and half-alien, and I’m also pretty sure he’s his own grandpa. Hell, I used to be friends with the fucking Beyonder.

“What’s this?” Tran gloats, smiling an awful smile. Somehow, it’s Xi’an’s body but it doesn’t feel like her at all. “I was expecting at _least_ all of X-Force. Are these the only people brave or stupid enough to come to their friends’ rescue?”

“Hey,” Rictor says, “shut up.”

Tran grins and it makes my stomach twist. “No,” he says. “I don’t think I will.” His eyes glow pink. I’m not 100% sure what’s happening until Rictor leans down and grabs a gun off one of the guards… and points it at his own temple.

My heart drops. For as much shit as I give him, I love Julio more than I care about most other people on Earth. I’ve had to talk him down from wanting to kill himself more than a few times, and it still kills me that I wasn’t around that last time, the time he came closest. There’s no way I’m letting this happen.

“Oh, no you don’t,” I growl, hurling a time bomb directly at the gun. At least all those baseball games in Westchester were worth something. My aim is perfect. The time bomb hits the gun and the momentum carries both across the room, where they explode when they hit the wall.

Tran doesn’t waste time playing with his new puppet. Rictor turns on me, eyes glowing pink. “I don’t know how he’s doin’ this, Shatty,” I say, backing up until I hit the wall. “Rictor has really strong psychic defenses. Tran shouldn’t be able to get in.”

“Julio?” Shatterstar says. For the first time since we broke into the O*N*E, he actually sounds scared. I thought it would be fun finally hearing Shatterstar stop acting like The Bravest Little Soldier That Ever Was, but it’s not. Like, at all. “Julio? Stop this.”

“Rictor’s not special,” Tran says, almost sounding bored. “At the end of the day, he’s just meat.”

“No,” Shatterstar says.

Rictor hits me with a vibration that I’m not expecting. It feels like my brain is rattling inside my skull. “Stop it!”

“You’re so pathetic,” Rictor-not-Rictor taunts. He hits me with another quake and I can’t keep standing. He’s not even aiming at the ground, he’s aiming at _me_. He’s going to shake me apart. “Not good enough for X-Force, not good enough for the New Mutants. You weren’t even good enough for your parents.”

“Shut up, dick.” Sometimes I have witty responses but it’s not, like, a requirement. I’m not fucking Spider-Man. Shatterstar looks like he’s trying to figure out what to do. He’s hovering near the rest of the New Mutants, shooting worried glances at me and Rictor. “Shatterstar. You gotta talk to him… snap him out of this…” My head’s pounding. Do I have a concussion? How do I tell that? Rictor hits me with another wave and it feels like I’m going to come apart at the joints. “Shatterstar…”

“Julio.” He puts one hand on Rictor’s shoulder, the other tightly gripping one of his swords. Green energy dances around Rictor’s fingertips, and he could attack Shatterstar at any second. Shatterstar looks to me for help, and somehow I’m on the floor. When did that happen? Everything seems dark and far away. “What do I do? What do I say?” Shatterstar asks frantically, looking at me. Even as far as he’s come, he’s still so much the lonely little alien from Camp Verde. “Tabitha, how do I help him?”

“Jus’ tell him… tell him you love him,” I say, sliding down the wall. I’m trying to keep my eyes open but it’s so hard. “Help ’im rem’ber who he is. Shatty… you have to…” Shatterstar’s swords are humming, and I don’t know if that’s just a defense mechanism or if he’s doing it on purpose.I’m thinking it would seriously suck to die here.

I’m thinking it’s going to happen whether I like it or not.

“Julio,” Shatterstar tries again, moving his hand up from Rictor’s shoulder to cradle his face, still keeping a tight grip on his sword in his other hand. If I weren’t concussed and maybe dying, I’d be kind of struck by that duality, the fighter and the lover. For all his fierceness and fighting skills, Shatterstar can be so goddamn gentle with Ric. That’s good, probably. Ric always deserved someone who could be gentle with him. “Listen to me. You can fight this. I know you can.”

Tran’s just watching the whole thing, smirking, like he knows he’s already won. Like everything is just futile. Maybe it is, because Rictor’s hands are still haloed with green.

“I love you, Julio. Please come back to me,” Shatterstar says. “Don’t let him take you from me.”

I don't know what happens next except that everything starts shaking again and all I see is black.

* * *

 I wake up on my side in what looks like some kind of steel containment cell, kinda like where we found Dani and the others. There's someone else close by, breathing. I jolt upward, instinctively trying to prime a time bomb, but nothing happens.

Then my eyes adjust and I realize that the other person in the cell is Shatterstar.

“It won't work,” he says mournfully. His legs are folded up against his chest. Jeez, I've never seen him this bad, not even the night Julio left X-Force way back when. “They put collars on us.” He points to a shiny metal cuff locked around his neck. When I reach up to my own neck, I can feel the same contraption.

“Okay,” I say, trying to stay calm. It's just us in here. Rictor is nowhere to be found— probably still under Tran's control. “I've done this before, me an’ Ric,” I point out, remembering the day I met him. We were trapped by The Right, restrained by these ugly power-dampening helmets. “We'll be okay.”

“Trapped in here,” Shatterstar says. His voice is lower than I'm used to hearing it. “No way out. No way out, th— they have us. Own us.”

“No, hey,” I tell him, scrambling across the cell. At least we aren't chained up, fat lot of good it does us. Shatty's got his hands balled up over his face and he's started rocking back and forth. “Shatterstar.”

“No way out,” he says again, louder. Closer to a sob, really. “Captured, caught. Owned.” I try to put a hand on his shoulder but he snarls and jerks away.

“My bad,” I say, holding my hands up. Whatever's going on with him, it scares me. “I won't touch you again, okay? But, um, if you want you can hold my hand, okay? You can hold on and squeeze as hard as you gotta.” That used to help Ric when he had panic attacks. Leech, too. “I'm right here,” I promise.

God, Shatterstar's actually _whimpering._ “Please, no,” he whispers, living out some awful memory. “Will fight. Will fight.”

“You don't have to fight,” I tell him. “You're not on Mojoworld, alright?”

He glances over at me, and his eyes look really far away. Something clicks, though. “Boom-Boom?”

“Yep,” I say. “Those O*N*E bastards got us but we’re gonna be okay, okay? I’ll get us out of here.” Maybe that’s kind of a bold claim, but sue me. The guy looks like shit. False hope beats no hope at all.

“Boom-Boom,” he repeats with a little more surety. His breathing evens back out, and he starts looking more normal— well, as normal as he gets. “I… apologize for the theatrics.”

I try not to gape. “It’s cool, don’t worry.”

He looks around, assessing the cell we’re in. “We have to get out of here.”

“Well, duh.” I scoot away from him a little but not too far, in case he still needs a hand to hold or a shoulder to lean on. “I don’t know how, though.” I look over at the mechanical lock on the door. “Something tells me a bobby pin won’t work on that.” It’s starting to hit me now that we walked into this thing totally unprepared. Aside from Dom, who even knows we’re here? Not Kitty Pryde— if she’d known, she probably would have said no.

Come to think of it, I’m not entirely sure Kitty even knows that the O*N*E’s been holding her friends. It’s times like this I’m sort of glad I’ve never been an X-Man proper. It just sounds fucking complicated, the allegiances and rosters and missions and orders. I like things simple— there’s my friends, there’s me, and there’s the right thing to do.

And cute clothes, obviously.

So how do we get out of this fucking cell?

“Ric could bust that lock open with one of his vibes,” I say, thinking out loud.

“Julio is unreachable,” Shatterstar replies, looking mournful.

Right. This. “He doesn’t have to be,” I says. “Tran may be controlling him but he can fight it. You can get through to Rictor.”

“No, no,” Shatterstar says firmly, shaking his head and looking down at the dusty cell floor. “I cannot speak to him. It should be you.”

I try not to groan and actually manage it. Shatterstar’s like family, but he’s so damn stubborn sometimes that I want to scream. “Look,” I tell him, “if you were anybody else, I’d agree with you. I know Rictor like the back of my hand. I can probs hold my own in the old ‘I Know You’re In There’ fight. But there’s somebody in this cell who’s the love of Rictor’s damn life, and it ain’t me.” He looks doubtful. “You can get through to him. I know you can.”

“Words are not my strong suit,” he says. I gotta admit, he has a point. Back when I first met the guy, Shatterstar only spoke to make threats. It was over a long time he really learned to communicate like someone from Earth. I know Ric was part of that. “Tabitha, I struggle with sharing my feelings with Julio even under normal circumstances. He’s being controlled. He’s trying to hurt us. How can I…?” He trails off helplessly, thunking his head back against the wall of our cell and gazing upward.

* * *

 When I first came to, I was grateful that at least Shatty and I weren’t separated. But after about two hours locked up together, I’m starting to think the O*N*E tossed him in here specifically to torment me. The guy won’t stop pacing, moving around, even kicking at the walls like that’s going to do anything.

I finally have to invent a game just to get him to stop aimlessly fidgeting and circling the cell. “I’m gonna describe an episode of a sitcom and you have to say what sitcom it is,” I tell him, because if there’s a single thing we have in common, it’s an obsession with cruddy nineties TV. “Okay. So… this guy starts making his own spaghetti sauce and—”

“ _Saved By The Bell_ ,” Shatterstar says immediately. “My turn. A group of students is locked in after-school detention when terrifying events begin to unfold in the manner of typical horror movies and—”

“ _Boy Meets World_ .” I open my mouth to start describing an episode of _Friends_ , but Shatterstar holds up his hand and shushes me.

“Someone’s coming.”

I hear the footsteps then, pounding mechanically toward our little cell. And then Rictor’s in front of us, looking as cold and vacant as before. “You’re on,” I whisper to Shatterstar, but he looks stricken, doesn’t even move.

“Dinner,” Tran-as-Rictor announces, sliding two trays of protein mush through a slot in the cell door. Shatterstar stands up and leans against the bars, looking Rictor right in the eyes.

“Julio,” he says, and God, it’s like I can _feel_ the pain in his voice. Rictor and Shatterstar have something _real_ , something I don’t know that I’ve ever seen in anyone else except maybe Cyke and Jean. If that connection isn’t getting us out of here, I don’t know what will. “Please fight this. You’re so strong. You’re so powerful. I know you can fight Tran’s possession.”

Puppet-Rictor tilts his head and smiles cruelly. “But I _have_ fought Tran’s possession,” he lies, smirks. “This is what I want, Shatterstar. I _hated_ playing house with you, pretending to love you. I was always acting. How could anyone make themselves care for a thing like you?”

Damn, that’s harsh. “Shatty, he’s—” I start, wanting to tell him that Tran’s lying, trying to hurt him.

“I know,” Shatterstar says. His concentration hasn’t even been shaken. “Julio, listen to me. You've saved me so many times. Please, please let me save you.”

Tran snarls and uses Ric's earthquake power to throw Shatty back against the wall. “You can't even save yourself.”

“Please!” Shatterstar yells, slumped against the wall, and God, he sounds fucking _broken_. “Julio, remember Mexico. Our travels. How you comforted me that night after the Limelight bar. The way you held me after Cortex. Try to remember.”

Tran-as-Rictor just scoffs and says, “Maybe you can get him back when I'm done playing with him.” He laughs, walking away. “If I don't break him first.”

At that last threat, Shatterstar screams. He sounds like a wounded animal.

* * *

 Shatterstar looks pretty fucked up emotionally after that last interaction with Tran Coy Manh, and I don’t blame him. I think about trying to remind him that obviously Rictor cares about him, that he’s just buried real deep down right now and can’t get through. I’m pretty sure he knows that, though, and not a damn thing I say is gonna make him feel any better.

So instead I focus on getting us out of here.

There’s a vent up near the ceiling. When I was 14 I probably could’ve fit, no problem. These days, it’s gonna be a little more of a squeeze, but it’s my only shot. All I need is something to undo the screws.

I check my pockets— nothing. And it’s not like I’ve got a bobby pin on me, ’cause I’m not, like, twelve. “Hey, Shatty,” I say. “You got a dime?”

The look he gives me is so blatantly unamused that I actually feel like I need to step back. “I don’t think we can bribe our way out of here, Tabitha,” he retorts, “especially not with ten cents.”

“Jeez, man, chill. Do you have a dime?” He does _not_ look happy, which, yeah, makes sense. “Just trust me.”

Miracle of miracles, he does. I manage to jimmy the screws out of their sockets with the edge of the coin and pop the grate out. Yeah, I’m like a regular MacGyver. The opening is small but I manage to squeeze in there, all the while planning to go on a diet when this is all over. Actually, maybe a better resolution would be to just stop getting myself into situations where I need to crawl through a vent.

It’s tight, and uncomfortable, and it smells rank in there. But after about fifteen minutes of worming along, I finally manage to make it up and out of the cell block and over the grate in the hallway. Good thing I’ve still got Shatterstar’s dime. I pop out the grate and drop to the ground, super graceful-like.

Maybe not so graceful. Whatever, I’m not Black Widow.

“Never doubt me again,” I tell Shatterstar, hitting the button on the other side of the wall the opens our cell. “Also, I’m keeping the dime.”

“Swords,” Shatterstar says, his hands opening and closing like he doesn't understand why he isn't already holding his weapons. I go snooping and find them in a storeroom around the corner.

“Here,” I say, passing them over. “You know,” I add as he holds up one sword to my inhibitor collar, “without your mutant power active they're just—”

“— swords,” he says. “Even without my power activated, swords are still swords.” In one swift motion, he slices through the latch on my inhibitor collar while I’m trying not to breathe or move.

When it comes off, I'm relieved— then I see Shatterstar trying to angle the sword toward his own collar. “Hey, whoa,” I yelp, holding up a time bomb. “I got it.” I blast off his collar and we get going.

“What will we do when Rictor comes for us?” Shatterstar asks, somehow managing to stalk through the halls in an intimidating manner while fidgeting with nerves at the same time. “I have failed twice now to break through Tran's possession to reach him.”

“Yeah, I was thinking about that while I was in the vent,” I tell him, trying to figure out where to turn next. I start to go left but Shatterstar corrects me and leads us right. “I know I said that whole ‘power of love’ thing was the best way to deal with mind control, but there's another way,” I say. “Seen it work with Havok and Cyclops. We can _annoy_ Ric back to his right mind. Get under his skin enough that he can use that agitation to take his body back.”

Shatterstar stops walking to look at me, anxiety obvious in his face. “How are you going to do that?”

I grin, thinking about that skinny tank-top-wearing twerp I used to antagonize. “Years of experience.” We head down another corridor and keep going, ears alert for any more guards. Getting captured once was bad enough. If it happens a second time it's just embarrassing.

* * *

 Soon enough we're back at the cell where all the New Mutants are being held. I figure it's easier dealing with a handful of Technarch'd former teammates than a Tran-controlled Ric. At least Warlock's a friend, sort of.

Apparently the O*N*E are kind of dumbasses, because they didn't even take the time to fix the lock before shoving Dani and the rest in there. It's still melted where I blew it up, and the door is easy to pull open.

“Okay, let's try this again,” I tell Dani, Rahne, Guido, Illyana and whatever's left of Warlock. “Single file.” They walk out like zombies.

“We can't get them _and_ Rictor out,” Shatterstar says.

“Relax,” I tell him, because I thought of this too. “’Yana,” I say, taking her shoulders carefully. She's stiff and kind of faraway still, but… something. It's like I can feel her listening. “Uh, Magiklock or… whoever I'm speaking to? Can you just, like, nod if you can hear me?”

It feels about as useful as asking a Ouija board for advice.

But then, slowly but clearly, Illyana nods.

“Okay, awesome,” I say hurriedly, mind racing. “You need to save your team, alright? Get them somewhere safe. We'll figure out the rest later but I need you to ’port everyone to safety, okay? Illyana?”

I wait. And finally, miraculously, she nods again.

One blinding-white disc of light later, the New Mutants are gone. Safe, hopefully. “Now Julio,” Shatterstar says, as if I forgot. I nod and we retrace our steps, heading back toward the direction we saw Rictor go.

As we walk, Shatterstar grips his swords carefully, ready to use them at any second. “Alright, this time I’m gonna do the talking,” I remind him, trying to figure out what I’m going to say to Rictor. He was a lot easier to piss off when he was a repressed, hormonal teenager. These days he’s a lot more level-headed and at peace with himself. The jerk.

“What should I do?”

“You’re my muscle,” I grin, patting his bicep. “Take out any O*N*E guys milling around or trying to stop us. Also, if Tran’s there—”

“I won’t hurt Xi’an.”

“Well, obviously,” I say. “Just buy me time to get under Rictor’s skin.”

“Understood.”

We keep going, weaving through the facility. It’s like walking through a submarine, all quiet and dark, with pipes and cables running above our heads, along the ceiling.

Shatterstar hears them coming first. He stops walking, holds an arm out to stop me. Except he must be really shaken up, his focus off, because he hears the O*N*E guards up in front of us… but he didn’t catch the ones sneaking up behind us.

“Grab the girl,” one of them says.

Shit, that’s me.

Arms come up from behind me and grab me and I try to wriggle way but the guy holding me is strong and a lot bigger than me. I’ve still got one advantage, though. I get a timebomb ready in my hand, aim it toward this guy’s foot.

But then I feel the business end of a gun digging into the side of my head. _Fuck_. “Try anything and we decorate the wall with your brains, girlie.” Maybe it’s that I’m freaking out or maybe that what he just said is the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard, but I have to bite my cheek to keep from laughing. I mean, then I remember the life-or-death of it all and sober up.

Shatterstar looks at me, eyes wide, and then a fist connects with his jaw. Rictor. I watch, unable to do a damn thing, as Rictor and Shatterstar start battling it out. Shatterstar holds his swords out, more a warning than anything else, and Tran-as-Rictor laughs and sends a vibe-quake through the floor, knocking Shatterstar down.

He gets right back up and right back into the fight. The fight that was supposed to be mine, technically. Obviously, these O*N*E bastards have no respect for our battle plan. I can still talk, though, so I can still go through with one part of the plan.

“Hey, Julio!” I shout, trying to keep my voice even even though there’s a gun pointed at my head. “You seriously gonna fight your fuckin’ boyfriend? I mean, I know you pick fights with _everybody_ , but what’d Shatterstar do? Delete your recording of _Hasta que te conocí_?”

“Quiet,” the asshole holding me says.

But I’m real bad at following directions. “Seriously, Rictor, you’re not gonna listen to _me_ ? I’ve seen you naked, for Chrissakes! I mean, obviously so has Shatterstar. Who are you gonna side with? The people who have seen you naked or the people who have _never_ seen you nake—”

“ _Shut up_ ,” the guy holding me says, and this time he digs the barrel of the gun into my skin and I gotta admit, that does a good job of shutting me up.

Rictor and Shatterstar are fighting, and I can’t do a damn thing to stop it. I stand there feeling helpless, trying to do the math here. One of the guys is gonna kill the other, probably, and I’m damn sure Shatterstar’s not actually going to kill Rictor, even if it would save my life and his.

Which means Tran’s going to kill Shatterstar. After that he might make Rictor kill _me_ just to fuck with us. At any rate, I’m pretty sure we’re not getting out of this one.

And then Shatterstar does the most amazing thing.

He throws his swords behind him, lets them go, and I watch as they arc through the air before clattering to the floor a few yards away. It's kind of like that scene on _Return of the Jedi_ when Luke tosses his lightsaber.

I'm not really sure where he's going with this until ’Star puts his hands up, palms facing Rictor. He's standing down, giving up his swords. Making himself vulnerable, for Julio.

It’s not a surrender.

It’s the bravest thing I’ve ever seen him do.

And it fucking _works_. I can see the change in Rictor even though his back is to me. His shoulders relax, and he shakes his head a couple times, coming out of Tran’s possession. Turns out actions speak louder than words, especially when it comes to Shatterstar.

“’Star?” Ric asks, sounding confused. “Where… what happened?”

“It’s okay,” Shatterstar says, and even though we’re still surrounded by like half a dozen O*N*E guys and we still might die, he sounds so… happy. Grateful. I kinda don’t blame him. “It’s okay, Julio.”

With the lovebirds momentarily distracting the guards, including the one holding me, I manage to elbow the guy in the stomach. Solar plexus, instep, nose, groin. Sandra Bullock taught me more about fighting than Cable ever did, that’s for sure.

Rictor’s seriously rattled, but he manages to get himself together enough to send out a vibe-quake that takes care of the rest of the guards.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” I say. I grab Rictor’s hand and he grabs Shatterstar’s hand, and then we’re gone.

* * *

 Shatterstar’s portal takes us to the sidewalk in front of his apartment building in Queens, which I guess is what Rictor was thinking of. Now that we’re finally out of there, safe and sound, I feel like I’ve been holding my breath and can finally let it out.

Rictor just walks across the street and sinks down to the ground, stretching out on his back. I shoot Shatty a look, and we follow Rictor to the other side of the street, where there’s a patch of grass with a couple of dandelions sprouting up. “You okay?” I ask Rictor.

“Mmm… I’ll be fine,” he hums, eyes closed. “I don’t like being controlled.”

“No one does.”

“Yeah, well…” he sighs. Shatterstar sits down next to him and Rictor pushes himself up to a sitting position, takes his boyfriend’s hand. “I remember… _some_ of it. Not a lot. I remember both of you were trying to help me.”

“I didn’t know how to help you,” Shatterstar admits, looking upset. “I tried so hard…”

“It’s okay, _corazón_ ,” Rictor says, putting a hand beneath Shatterstar’s chin. “You did help me.” He kisses Shatterstar, and I gotta admit, it’s pretty fuckin’ cute.

Ric pats a spot on the grass next to him and looks up at me. “Nah, I don’t wanna be a third wheel,” I point out, looking at him and Shatterstar. He just rolls his eyes.

“Technically you’re both third wheels. I sat down to be with the ground.” Shatterstar looks concerned, like he thinks he’s actually interrupting, but Rictor just rolls his eyes again, curls one arm tighter around his boyfriend and uses his other hand to yank me down to their level. “This is nice,” he decides, looking up at the sky. “Got my boyfriend, got my best friend. S’all good.”

“We could not save Xi’an,” Shatterstar points out, still looking upset.

“I felt her,” Rictor says, which is a surprise to me. I glance over to gauge his expression but his eyes are closed again. His face pinches up as he thinks about being under Tran’s control. “When I was… y’know, _under_. It’s like I could feel Karma there with me, fighting for control. We’ll get her back.” He opens his eyes to look at Shatterstar and me. “She’s just gonna need her own emotional anchors.” That must mean something to Shatterstar, because he looks surprised but pleased. I don’t know about “emotional anchor.” I was just trying to keep Ric from getting himself (or us) killed. Same as always, really.

“Who—?”

“Dani,” I tell them, because, c’mon, I’m not blind.

Rictor looks at me. “What happened to her, anyway?”

“It’s okay,” I say. “I had Yanalock take them all somewhere safe.”

Ric’s face sours. “You do know that Illyana’s idea of a ‘safe place’ is hell, right?”

I shrug. “Better than the O*N*E.” Neither of them disagrees. “We’ll figure them out, maybe get Cypher and Danger to help. It’s gonna be okay.”

And it is, at least for right now.

 

> _“What’d you think of my field report?” Boom-Boom asks Domino, smiling proudly. “I’ve never actually written one before but I figured I’d start. Good, right?”_
> 
> _“Um,” Domino says, glancing down at the pages in her hand. “Well… it’s fine. Next time can you try to keep the swearing to a minimum? Also I don’t really see a need for this little drawing of Rictor and Shatterstar kissing.”_
> 
> _“It’s good though, right?”_
> 
> _“... Sure.”_


End file.
